Monks of the Grasping Hand are masters of the battlefield. They learn to control their enemies as if extensions of their own bodies, manipulating the Ki of their opponents to provide critical openings in the midst of battle. 

Fluid Restraint

When attempting to grapple an enemy, you can use your Dexterity or Wisdom score instead of your Strength score. This allows you to rely on your agility or insight to gain the upper hand in grappling, making it easier for you to seize control of opponents without being constrained by your physical strength.

Your training as a monk has taught you that true strength lies not solely in brute force but in the finesse of movement and the clarity of mind. By channeling your Dexterity or Wisdom, you gracefully ensnare your opponents with the precision of a dancer and the insight of a sage. You become a whirlwind of motion, wrapping your limbs around your foe with a fluidity that confounds their expectations. Whether through a deft twist of the wrist or an understanding of your enemy's intent, you demonstrate that grappling is as much about technique and awareness as it is about raw power.

Restrained Ki

You can grapple up to two creatures simultaneously, treating each grapple as an independent instance. As your skill progresses, the number of creatures you can grapple increases. At level 12, you can grapple three creatures, at level 16, you can grapple four, and at level 20, you can grapple up to five creatures. Each creature must still be grappled separately, and maintaining these grapples follows the usual rules for grappling.

Harnessing the flow of ki through your body, you learn to control not just one enemy, but many at once. By focusing your inner energy, you can entangle multiple foes with a mastery of movement and precision. As you grow in your martial prowess, your ki becomes a living force, allowing you to manipulate even more opponents, holding them in place as effortlessly as a river binds stones in its current. Your hands become like unbreakable chains, no enemy escaping your grasp.

Grappler's Guard

For each creature you currently have grappled, your Armor Class (AC) increases by 1. This bonus reflects your ability to use grappled foes as physical barriers to protect yourself in combat. The AC boost lasts as long as you maintain the grapples.

With each enemy you seize, you turn their strength against them. Your fluid movements and mastery of grappling turn your foes into unintentional protectors, positioning their bodies to block incoming attacks meant for you. Whether it's pulling them in front of a strike or twisting them into the path of danger, these unwilling shields provide you with a layer of protection, whether they realize it or not. Through your expert manipulation of both ki and muscle, even your enemies help defend you.

Ki Counterstrike

When a creature misses an attack against you, you can use your reaction and expend 1 ki point to redirect that attack to a creature you have grappled. You then make an attack roll against the grappled creature. On a hit, the grappled creature takes the full damage from the original attack, as if they were the intended target. This allows you to turn missed blows into lethal counters against your grappled enemies.

Your foes become unwitting protectors as you masterfully deflect danger away from yourself and onto those you've already ensnared. With lightning speed and precision, you manipulate their bodies like pawns on a battlefield. A missed blow becomes an opportunity, a moment where you use your grappled foe as a shield, twisting the force of the attack back toward them. Whether it’s pulling them into the line of fire or guiding the strike into their flesh, you turn the chaos of combat into a deadly game of misdirection, leaving your enemies vulnerable to their own aggression.

Paralyzing Aura

As a bonus action, you may expend 2 ki points to attempt to immobilize a creature within a number of feet equal to your Monk level. The creature makes a Wisdom saving throw against a DC of 13 + half your Monk level. On a success, the creature’s speed is halved until the end of its next turn and suffers no other effects. On a failure, the creature’s speed is reduced to 0. The creature may reroll the saving throw at the beginning of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.

With a quick focus of your ki, you can halt a creature’s movement in an instant. As a bonus action, you send out a pulse of energy that grasps at your foe from afar, locking their body in place or slowing their steps. Whether it’s through sheer willpower or deep understanding of energy, your ki binds their limbs as surely as if you had physically grappled them. Even if they struggle and break free, the momentary halt shifts the tides of battle, proving that distance offers no protection from your mastery.

Grasp the Mind

When you grapple a creature, you may expend 1 ki point to ignore any size restrictions for the duration of the grapple. This allows you to grapple creatures regardless of their size, bypassing the normal limitations that would otherwise prevent you from grappling larger opponents.

Your mastery of ki extends beyond the physical, allowing you to impose your will on creatures far larger than yourself. By focusing your energy, you disrupt the creature’s perception of its own strength, making it feel as though your hold is unbreakable no matter its size. Even towering giants find themselves bound by your grasp, unable to escape the mental and spiritual chains you impose. Your understanding of ki turns even the largest foe into a manageable target, as your grip transcends the physical plane and locks onto their very mind.

Ethereal Grip

When you take damage from an attack while grappling only one creature, you may use your reaction and expend 1 ki point to gain resistance to that attack. The creature you have grappled takes damage equal to the amount you resisted. This allows you to deflect part of the attack’s force onto your restrained foe.

In the heat of combat, your mastery of ki allows you to become as elusive as mist. When struck, you instinctively shift the force of the blow onto the creature you hold in your grasp. The impact seems to pass through you, leaving only a portion of its force to land, while the rest transfers to your foe, as though they were caught in a shifting fog. Your enemies become not just captives, but conduits for the harm meant for you, a living shield whose suffering becomes your advantage.